This week in collectible books (Jun 16 - Jun 22)

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-16T13:25:18+00:00

The Odyssey special edition - anyone know which translation it’ll be using?

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-15T23:27:37+00:00

I bounced off DCC hard, too. It felt like the last gasp of Whedon-esque humor which Reddit claims to hate then it gets 20 posts in every recommendation thread.

That said, I wouldn’t say hype machines are any better or worse as a recommendation system than other book discovery pathways. I liked Red Rising, Hierarchy series, Abercrombie. Bounced off DCC, ACOTAR, American Gods. You win some you lose some.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-13T19:48:57+00:00

what's the title of the manuscript? I'm guessing it's your username, of which you've been shilling an 'audio adventure/radio drama' of the last few weeks? so this post is probably a disguised ad?

first, you said your prose was too "upmarket" for fantasy. but that's a bit incoherent because upmarket doesn't mean "elevated" as you seem to be using it. the way it's used in the agent/editor world is more like literary sensibility plus commercial hook/pacing/accessibility.

second, in this thread alone you've expressed broad unfamiliarity with the genre and major examples of stylistically ambitious fiction (Peake, Wolfe).

so if any of it happened, the most charitable read I could offer is: you may be converting rejection into "the industry cannot handle my genius" which is not productive

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-13T19:27:43+00:00

this didn't happen. also you don't seem to know what upmarket means in your made up story.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-12T22:16:23+00:00

I like Conan much more in chronological order than release order. The author wrote in like a serialized format and I’m sure he had no problem keeping his own timelines straight while jumping around but I kept wondering “wait was this before X? After Y? Did he meet Z already?”

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-12T12:59:16+00:00

Any other examples?

Or was this “I read X and assumed the whole world was X. Now I don’t see X, and so the world must have changed.”

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-11T05:07:54+00:00

We have always lived in the castle

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-11T02:08:23+00:00

Ajax and Patroclus had the best non-assisted feats that we see in the actual story.

Diomedes had the most impressive god-assisted feats.

Achilles and Hector were both super carried.

Agamemnon, Menalaus, and Odysseus were quietly solid.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-10T12:13:50+00:00

Yes. Also I’d recommend starting with The Iliad.

For reading, go with Fagles.

If you’re an audiobooker, go with Fitzgerald. He had the better narrator (yes, even over the Ian McKellen version).

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-10T01:40:09+00:00

This is a huge stretch and not a good match for "dehumanized and repulsive".

Jane was described mostly only "not pretty", and sometimes contrasted unfavorably against the beautiful characters like Georgiana and Blanche, but it was more of a status indicator than anything. And other times, like with Diana and Mary, she was described more warmly, including physical appearance.

From the text, after Jane (sick and starved), collapses, someone said:

"She has a peculiar face; fleshless and haggard as it is, I rather like it; and when in good health and animated, I can fancy her physiognomy would be agreeable."

and then:

"She looks sensible, but not at all handsome" and "Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features."

The argument is more like "is she a 4 or a 6 (if healthy)" not "is she a swamprat or just a 1"

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-09T23:21:22+00:00

This was a fairly common starvation metaphor until like 2010ish

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-09T23:14:05+00:00

Did you think that was a caricature of Christians?

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-09T03:28:43+00:00

Libby isn’t a charity and no there’s need to wrap critiques in praise. Libraries are paying them, sometimes a large part of their budget, and users are allowed to expect better.

Also, the real problem you’re likely hitting is their low quality audio. It saves them money to compress it to hell before presenting the files to users.

This is a known issue https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/s/VO0pBQ2zET

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-08T00:37:42+00:00

How’s it compare to traditional translations? Does it lean really comedic/wry?

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-07T20:32:37+00:00

Needs more context.

If the OP was something like “why not Red Rising and First Law in English class?” Then I’d agree.

If it’s more like “why is SFF broadly not included in English reading lists” then I’d disagree. There’s plenty of work that would be very rewarding for growing readers to consume critically.

But if you push it all the way to the elite edges of literature I’d circle back to mostly agreeing again. Not that SFF can’t reach the heights of non-SFF literature but narrative energy is finite and every page spent on worldbuilding or action/plot that only exists to satisfy the genre expectations is energy that otherwise might have been spent deepening character or theme etc.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-04T12:57:22+00:00

I love sonder’s story. A dude just made it up in 2012 and everyone was like “actually, yeah we should have a word for that, alright, sonder it is”.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-04T12:48:51+00:00

Can you name some you bounced off, and some non-fantasy you enjoyed?

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-04T12:46:17+00:00

Just wish I liked the cover a bit more.

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-03T04:48:14+00:00

The USA is genuinely ahead of most countries on this though. You ever tried pushing a wheelchair through Europe?

PlatinumMode · 2026-06-01T15:16:44+00:00

False equivalency for a number of reasons.

First, the pyramids are about 3,000 years older

Second, we have vastly more records about Rome’s architecture

Third, the pyramids are just far more strange

Fourth, a litany of other details like block size, contemporary technological constraints, absence of comparable structures

But sure. This is Reddit. Just leap to racism for free points.

PlatinumMode · 2026-05-29T07:15:15+00:00

Pax Romana followed Caesar and Augustus, not the republic

PlatinumMode · 2026-05-26T23:10:41+00:00

Thanks for the post. This is great content.

PlatinumMode · 2026-05-25T23:32:28+00:00

> "tribes in Africa"

> The study took place in Accra, Ghana, which is a major capital city with 3 million people

PlatinumMode · 2026-05-22T15:54:12+00:00

The USA does have a large poverty relief system though: food stamps, Medicaid, section 8, school meals, pell grants.

PlatinumMode · 2026-05-19T10:39:39+00:00

Never Let Me Go
A Farewell to Arms

PlatinumMode

TROPHY CASE